CITY OF ST. LOUIS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 1 October 1927, Page 5

CITY OF ST. LOUIS

Swept By Devastating Cyclone An Appalling Death Roll Finest Residential District Obliterated DAMAGE ESTIMATED AT £20,000,000 IBy Cable — Press Assn. — Copyright.] Another disaster, following closely the great floods in the Mississippi Valley, has fallen upon the United (States, the latest one being (he wrecking of the fine city of St. . Louis by a tornado wmeh struck the town on Thursday without warning. The. latest reports by cable state that it is expected inc death, roll will reach 10U, and that the injured will probably total 1500. The damage to property is placed somewhere in the vicinity of £211,000,000. St. Louis is situated on the West bank of the Mississippi, 20 miles below the mouth of the Missouri. It is the largest city in the Mississippi basin and the fifth largest city in the United States. TROOPS HURRIEDLY DESPATCHED. ORDERED TO SHOOT LOOTERS. (Received 1, 10.45 a.m.) New York, Sept. 30. The bodies of 80 victims of the cyclone in St. Louis have now been recovered. Many others are believed to be buried under the debris and it is feared the final death roll may reach 150. The number of injured is estimated at between 1000 and 1500 and of these 300 are In a serious condition. Damage to property is tenatinvely placed at between 80,000,000 dollars and 100,000,000 dollars. The Federal Government has despatched 1000 regular troops to the scene of the disaster and police and National Guardsmen have also been mustered with orders to “shoot to kill” anyone caught looting food stations or using War Department supplies set up in the stricken districts. Preparations have been made for taking care of the homeless who are estimated at 25,000. HOUSES CRUSHED LIKE CARDBOARD. The. most pitiful scenes occurred in the negro section where the flimsy frame houses were crushed like cardboard boxes. The • toll of killed and injured in this area is especially high. Entire sections of brick apartment buildings in the better residential districts were pulled down and structures uprooted. One residential street noted for its stately elms now has the appearance of a carelessly lumbered forest, the trees being snapped off and torn apart by the wind. The police state that they have the greatest difficulty In handling the situation and keeping sightseers out of the stricken areas, thousands having flocked to the scene of the disaster. The hotels are crowded, with homeless victims. —(A. and N.Z.) EARLIER REPORTS. All the damage was done within a period of five minutes. Hundreds of persons are being moved to hospitals to-night after being dragged from the debris of their homes. The city’s finest homes and streets are ruins and the fires are not yet all extinguished. In the residential areas, where the storm pursued a freak course, tering its way into Illinois and Missouri, toppling factory chimneys, farmhouses and trees, pedestrians were swept from their feet, automobiles and trees, pedestrians were lifted off and tele graph and telephone wires and tram trolleys were blown into a tangle. Hundreds of ambulances from the city hospitals and motor cars were pressed into service, bringing the injured to medical aid. It is estimated that several thousand residences were wrecked and many people killed when walls collapsed. Nearly an inch of rain fell during the storm, adding- to the distress of'the injured The storm was the most destructive since May, 1896, when 140 were killed. It came with bewildering suddenness. The air was literally black with flying debris.

Several of those killed met death in an unusual form. One man was felled by a telephone pole. Two workers in an iron factory had ladles of hot metal poured over them. Two women were burned when a collapsing building cut off egress. A policeman on beat was crushed by flying wreckage. Troops now patrol the streets, and with firemen and policemen are digging in the debris. It is pointed out that the damage and casualties would probably have been higher if the storm had struck the business area, which was crowded with people, instead of the residential districts.